I would just like to add that saa is nogals kak. they have overbooked my gilfriends flight by 36 people…she was not on standby, she did not wait for a cheaper flight…she paid two weeks before the trip and now they tell her its overbooked and she has to wait three hours at Joburg airport! And the reason why I’m pissed at this…it makes me miss the third tri-nations test between us and oz! hav to go and sit at ‘ffen spur in drban airport and watch the rugby instead of being at home wih a cold lager.

Hendre.

Please see the attached letter from SAA apologizing and the refund on stuff stolen from my bag. The total value of a watch, camera and springbok rugby jersey stolen was R 5456 and the refund R 162.47. 2.97% of the value stolen and to me it feels like saa is in approval of the practice by their staff.

This happened on the 25.06.09 and if you go to hello peter and look up theft and saa you come up with 2 cases. One on the 22.05.09 and one on the 15.04.09. Guess which route, JHB to ELS, the same route I flew. Should SAA not have known there was a problem and sorted it out before the theft on the 22.05.09, and now they are apologetic in their letter. The refund would not be enough to buy a fake springbok jersey. I am very disappointed in our national carrier, not only do they screw us as tax payers, but as individuals as well, while their staff enrich themselves by stealing and the practice is not condoned by the carrier.

Regards

M Marshall

—–Original Message—– Sent: 30 July 2009 04:10 PM

Dear Mr Marshall,

Please see the attached letter as discussed earlier today.

With kind regards,

Tony de Villiers __________________________ Baggage Claims Department SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS

img-0730132129-0001.pdf

*From:* Tatiana ] *Sent:* Wednesday, July 29, 2009 10:40 PM *To:* ‘Magda Pretorius’ *Cc:* ticketingsaa@flysaa.com *Subject:* Authentication of payment for sponsored ticket for booking ref 2WGC3J on behalf of Mrs. M.E Pretorius.

Good day

Attached is booking details and credit card details

You guys are so slow that my 78 year old sick mother had to go home on Sunday – Because you can’t authenticate payment with all the modern technology.

It is quite strange that you are not bankrupt yet. We will never make use of SAA again. All the second grade low cost domestic airlines has done a superb job in comparison with SAA

Hope you can sort it out before Saturday 01/08/2009 at 17h00

Authentication of payment for sponsored ticket for booking ref 2WGC3J on behalf of Mrs. M.E Pretorius.

——————————

*From:* Tatiana *Sent:* Wednesday, July 29, 2009 9:42 PM *To:* ‘Tatiana’ *Subject:*

DIS GOED SO EN MOENIE WORRY NIE, DIS DAREM NIE TE VER LUGHAWE TOE NIE. ONS GESELS VRYDAG WEER.

TATTA EN GROETE

XXXXXXXX

2009/7/29 Magda Pretorius

Hello Maatjie

Jammer ek kom maar vrek min by die computer en vra vreeslik groot om verskoning dat julle Sondag verniet gery het. Ek het Saterdag omtrent slange gevang met SAA. Ek moes ‘n “Authentication of Payment for Sponsored Ticket” deurfaks omdat ek betaal het, want die passassier is veronderstel om die kredietkaart te wys as sy by die lughawe aankom. Ek het dit 11:28 aan hulle deurgefaks en ‘n uur daarna gebel om te hoor of hulle dit gekry het. Hulle kon nie bevestig dat hulle dit gekry het nie, en het weer 3 uur gebel. Hulle het toe gese hulle het dit nog nie gekry nie. Dit was so dol met Yvette se matriekafskeid en het 7 uur die aand weer gebel en toe het hulle voorgestel dat ek dit deur e-mail. Ons computer was af en is toe na vriende toe wat dit gescan en ge-email het. Toe ek terug is en bel toe is die call centre toe en maak eers 6 uur die volgende oggend weer oop. Ek was van plan om toe te bel, maar het regtig nie gedink dat hulle nie die faks of die e-mail betyds sou kry nie. Ek sal NOOIT weer ‘n vlug deur SAA bespreek nie. Enige besparing met die vlug het ons opgemaak met die telefoonoproepe.

En ek het nou gebel (wat ek al moes gedoen het) om seker te maak dat hulle die e-mail gekry het van Saterdag en raai wat – HULLE HET DIT NIE GEKRY NIE! Nou gaan ek die goed weer deurfaks en sal jou laat weet. Die meisie het wel vir my die bevestiging van die nuwe vlug deurgestuur en sal dit vir jou apart aanstuur.

Ek laat weet jou later.

Groete

Magda

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*From:* maatjie minnie *Sent:* Monday, July 27, 2009 9:45 AM *To:* Tatiana *Subject:* Haai

Ek wou net sê, toe ons gister op die lughawe is, het hulle baie stories gehad oor “signatures” wat glo nie deur is en “approved” is nie, want julle het die kaartjie met die krediet/visa kaart gekoop, en die bank moet glo eers die goed “authorised”. Ons het toe gesê dit word altyd so gedoen, maar nou ja, hulle wou niks weet nie. Ek sal in elk geval eers die lughawe bel hier teen Vrydag en hoor of alles nou fine is, voor ons weer gaan. Sy is nou op die 5 uur vlug Saterdag bespreek. Sal seker so 7 uur daar by julle wees.

As ek gebel het sal ek weer laat weet. Magda sal seker in elk geval van julle kant af ook kan uitvind of alles nou reg is of hoe?

Tata en mooi bly

Hi all,

This is the e-mail I send to SAA with my story on it (bear with me. It’s a long one!)…

To whom it may concern,

Before I explain exactly why I will NEVER fly with your airline again, I thought it best to highlight the statement you have describing your customer service on your website…

“South African Airways strives to inspire our customers with African hospitality in every detail, every time. Commitment to our passengers is key to our brand and we strive to get it right, first time, every time. Contact us should you have any customer care related queries.”

I am contacting you. Here is my story…

I flew to South Africa on business in late December 2008. My company has decided to outsource some of their work to Cape Town and I was the first of a number of staff members that will be flying over to get this project off the ground. Our company found good fairs on your website and thought it would be a novel idea to fly the South African national carrier on these trips. The flights were booked on the company credit card (in my MDs name) and I sent through all the relevant information needed. The flight was very comfortable and I don’t have a bad thing to say about the experience.

In my last few days in Cape Town it became apparent I would need another week in the country before coming back to London. I called your call centre and explained that I would need to change my ticket to the following Friday (6th Feb ’09). This is where all the trouble began. They explained to me that the changes would cost me R3100. When I had booked the flight online the website stated I would need to pay $175.00. I was told that the hike in price was due to the fact that there were no more tickets available within the booking class I has previously booked on. Needless to say this “Upgrade” as you termed it held no benefits to me. It just meant that you charged me more money which is a disgrace. I cannot believe that you have different classes of booking that mean the customer pays more and doesn’t get anything in return. Despite this I asked to change the ticket as my MD graciously agreed to pay the extra amount and I had important business to attend to in London the next week.

Once the change was requested I was told that I would need my MD’s credit card to pay for the booking. I said I would call back with the information. I spoke to my MD who told me his credit card had been stolen the day before and that he would need to apply for a new card (I know this is not your fault but bear in mind that this was no fault of mine either). I called SAA back and explained the situation on Friday the 30th of Jan ‘09. I was told that you accepted no other form of payment for a sponsored ticket than from that of the sponsor. I asked if you could hold the booking until the Monday to see if the card had come through the post by then. You said this was fine.

I woke up on Monday to find the news of the worst snow storms in London in 20 years. When I got to the office I spoke to my MD who explained that due to the weather the card would not be delivered for a few days. I spoke to your call centre and explained the situation. They said they would hold the booking until Wednesday but I would need to purchase a new ticket if I wasn’t able to get the details. I asked if I could pay for the change but you would not allow this, despite the circumstances I was in which were beyond my control.

On the Tuesday the weather in London was still bad and there was no sign of the credit card. I spoke to a very helpful lady based at the SAA offices in America who told me it might be better to go to the airport and so I drove for half an hour to speak to someone in passenger services. After explaining the dilemma I was in and producing a great wad of paperwork substantiating all of this including e-mail upon e-mail between my MD as well as copies of his passport, old credit card and the Fax Authentication Form, and I was told that no-one there could help me and that I would need to follow the procedure set out by the call centre. I said that I would happily pay for the change as I had important business to attend to in London the next week but they told me this was impossible and that I would need to buy a new ticket if I couldn’t get the new credit card details in time. I was astounded at how unhelpful they were and I was beginning to think that you were trying your very best to get me to buy a new ticket and extort even more money out of me.

On the Wednesday the card finally arrived and I was able to get these details to you. At this stage I was told I would need a letter from the bank stating that the old card had been cancelled and stating the new details. By the end of the day I had this for you along with the new Fax Authentication form. When I called to check I had everything I needed for you, you explained to me that the letter had to be stamped by the bank. I HAVE NO IDEA why you didn’t tell me this in the first place. I called my MD back, who is a very busy man and was in and out of meetings all day, and explained this to him. He told me this would be impossible to get before my flight on the Friday considering the weather and the backed up business it had caused. I called SAA back to tell you this and another agent told me that the stamp didn’t matter so I sent through the information and they told me it would be fine but I should call back the next day. I was fuming at this stage. I had spent at least an hour a day on the phone with your call centre and I was still having to call back AGAIN.

On the Thursday I called back and I was told the payment hadn’t gone through and I should call back in an hour. I did so and was asked to call back in an hour again. This happened a few times and while I was waiting for another hour to pass I got an e-mail from Shirley Nsimbi in Ticketing saying this (referring to the new Fax Authentication Form and the back of the new credit card)…

Dear Sir/Madam

Thank you for your email

However we’ve noticed that the back of the credit card doesn’t match the form please sign the form as you did the credit card.

Kindly email the following documents to SAA: Authentication for sponsored booking, Back and Front of credit card and Id copy of the credit card holder. Or scan the originals and email to *ticketingsaa@flysaa.com*

I couldn’t believe it. I was being told, after having been assured that everything was fine, that my MD, who finds it difficult to find time to eat lunch, had to take time out of his busy day to re-sign and fax this form through when CLEARLY the signatures matched. I phoned back virtually in tears and asked them to have a look at the form again as it was very obvious that the signatures were the same. I asked to be put through to a manager, which by the way I had done on numerous occasions previously, and I was put on hold. The call cut off after half an hour of waiting on hold, which by the way had happened to me every time I had asked to speak to a manager prior to this. I called back and spoke to another person who said that everything was fine and the payment had gone through. I received my confirmation e-mail and assumed it would be fine to fly the next day, in the nick of time.

Considering all of the issues I had with this ticket change I decided to give SAA one last call on the Friday of my flight. I spoke to someone who assured me everything was in order. I left the for the airport with a smile on my face, looking forward to coming home. I arrived at the check in desk, my bags were taken and tagged and I had given my passport in when I was told by your man at the check-in counter that my ticket change had not been paid for. I was absolutely astounded. After the HUGE rig moral I had gone through that week and the countless hoops I was asked to jump through I was speechless. I was told to go to passenger services desk to pay.

I walked up to the desk and the same lady I had spoken to on the Tuesday helped me. I explained my story and she said she would check the system. To my astonishment she said the booking had not gone through. I burst into tears. I just couldn’t believe that after I had made all the effort to check in advance that all was okay and done everything in my power to follow all of your lengthy procedures I was standing at the ticket desk in the same situation I had been in a week ago.

The lady was very helpful but it took her an hour to sort it all out and she had to go through the same process of sitting on hold to speak to one of your agents in the call centre. It turns out the person who was supposed to process the payment forgot to do so. Eventually I was given the go-ahead to check in. After all the trouble I had gone through with your airline all I was offered was a cup of coffee while I cried at your passenger services desk.

Once I boarded the plane it was apparent that due to my late check-in I was given the very worst seat on the plane at the very back of the aircraft. The only entertainment on the flight was shared TVs in the middle of the aisle, your flight attendants were rude and impatient and two passengers directly in front of me decided they wanted to have a fist fight half way through the flight. A wonderful cherry on top of this rather rancid cake.

So, there are a couple of things I would like to suggest to perhaps better the way in which you operate…

· Your call centre staff are friendly and helpful but are not allowed to move away from procedure, even in circumstances where this needs to happen. Your call centre staff need to be able to handle different situations and not just regurgitate the same script over and over again.

· When an agent is unable to help a customer, that customer should be able to speak to a manager or someone of authority that can consider their case. If circumstances make it impossible for the customer to follow your procedures you should have someone available to at least consider an alternative.

· If a manager is unavailable your agents should not put customers on hold until the call disconnects. This is the most frustrating thing in the world for a customer.

· Your agents need to be trained properly. I cannot explain to you the amount of inconsistencies I came across when trying to change my ticket. I am also amazed that I wasn’t told exactly what I needed from square one. I spent hours on the phone with you trying to figure out what it was exactly that I needed to give you and you seemed to add more things to the list or change your requirements every time I spoke to someone new which was ALL the time as the calls kept getting cut off while I was on hold.

· If you can see that you have brought a customer to tears perhaps that customer deserves something extra to cheer him / her up. The girl at the passenger services desk made a lot of comments about the length of the history on my booking reference, apologized over and over again for the hell you had put me through and she could see how upset I was but all I was offered was a coffee.

In terms of the statement on your website quoted at the top of this e-mail, I have not been inspired. Your attention to detail is disgraceful and I have failed to see an iota of your commitment to me as a passenger. You failed to get it right the first time. In fact you failed to get it right the 10thtime to be honest.

I would like to acquaint you with a website I encountered while trying to find your customer services e-mail address: http://saasucks.com/. Perhaps you should take a brief sojourn amongst the many pages of terrible tales people have to tell you about you. It seems I am not alone. I wasn’t able to find the equivalent for any other airline and I can tell you that you are losing a lot of business by the looks of things. I am booking my tickets to fly back next week with Virgin Atlantic. They have told me that changes to tickets are easy and I can pay for it myself if need be. You have lost out on a lot of repeat business from myself and my business and I will be sure to tell everyone I know about the emotionally draining week you have put me through.

What I would like from you is an apology. I would like something besides a short note via e-mail with an insincere “sorry” in it. If I don’t receive this I will ensure that this letter gets to every newspaper in South Africa and if I can manage it, any publication that will print it here in the UK. I know that others have done this as I have read letters in the South African press recently with similar stories in them, and I know that in general you have not responded by the looks of things. Perhaps when you lose all of your business and you aren’t receiving those massive bonuses any more you will sit up and take notice.

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And this is the brilliant response I got…

——————————

*From:* Customer Care [mailto:CustomerCare@flysaa.com] *Sent:* 10 February 2009 18:38 *To:* Sarah *Subject:* Acknowledgement of Receipt

Welcome to South African Airways Customer Care.

WE ARE CURRENTLY EXPERIENCING A HUGE BACKLOG AND HAVE MEASURES IN PLACE TO CURB THIS, PLEASE BEAR WITH US AND WE ASSURE YOU THAT YOU WILL RECEIVE A RESPONSE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. WE APPRECIATE YOUR UNDERSTANDING.KINDLY NOTE THAT IF YOU HAVE SENT YOUR E-MAIL PLEASE DO NOT RESEND IT.

Post departure complaints and compliments.

Thank you for sharing your travel experience with us, your feedback is appreciated. ——————————

I’m not surprised there is a backlog!

Kind regards,

Sarah

Talk about rude… This was on a domestic flight from JHB to DBN. My brother who is overweight asked not to be put in a middle seat. They told him that was all they had. He went to get upgraded to business class, but the line was too long. Afraid to miss the the flight he returned. The team leader thinking that my brother wanted a free upgrade to business class got snotty and instead of sorting out the problem tore up our tickets and suspended us from flying. When we asked for our money back we then informed that they would not refund our money for the tickets. So instead of trying to act civilised and being diplomatic, they tried to act important and have lost another customer forever. It is quite obvious that they have no idea how to handle paying customers.

I told my brother a few years ago that I would never fly SAA again after one of my overseas trips with them turned out to be a nightmare. He thought that I was full of it because he always travels business class where he gets treated the right way. Guess what? He wont be flying SAA in the future. BTW. I have been overseas a dozen times since that incident of mine and all I can is, Cathay, British Airways and Swiss Air do a 10 times better job. If you are coming to South Africa in 2010 for the soccer do yourself a favour: DON’T FLY SAA.

I have experienced business class on SAA in the past, where I was treated with warmth and hospitality. So why is it that in economy class I always feel that I get treated worse than a dog? Try and find a steward after dinner. They all seem to disappear and should you manage to find one, beware, you’ll know what rude is. I think I know the problem. All those fat cats that have run SAA into the ground have their own helicopters and when they need to travel long distance they probably fly Cathay or Swiss Air or British Airways…..One thing is for sure, they never travel economy, otherwise the service would be better and a paying customer would get treated the way paying customers should be treated, with respect.

VIVA 2010, VIVA. Nkozi Sikelele Africa.

SAA don’t suck, they are just kuck………

Mark Lentin

It seems as if my issue with SAA is just another drop in a very large bucket. And it seems as if I’ll be without R4200 for a while…

After having to cancel an international ticket for another person that was paid for via my credit card, the person on the SAA customer care line assured me that I will be refunded after 21 days. This was after spending 3 days (roughly 12 hours) on the line to get my credit card authorized, sending 4 faxes, going to the SAA counter at Cape Town International and sending 3 emails with my complete credit card details (exposing it in the process). Their response was that they could not read the credit card details and that my only option was to cancel the ticket and that the other person should buy their own ticket. In my desperation I did that, and patiently waited 31 days for the reimbursement (without R4200 in my account that could have gained interest).

When I phoned SAA today to find out why I have not been reimbursed yet, the lady on the line only stated that the refund has not been activated and that I have to wait another 21 days to (perhaps) get my money back. I apparently also have to pay a cancellation fee. I did not cancel this ticket for personal reasons, I *had* to cancel due to SAA’s inability to authorise my credit card. And from other people’s complaints I’ve now realised that I might only receive the fraction of the full amount due to the fact that they only reimburse taxes?

This is outrageous – due to a problem on SAA side (not being able to ‘read’ the credit card), I have been robbed of R4200, with no assurance of getting it back. What am I to do?

Please help, someone!

Liana

To SAA, Where’s the respect?

First off, I’m not really a person who complains a lot. I tend to just take it and move on. But after R10 000 and a shitty time, this is still bugging me.

On the flight SAA 235 (there are other complaints of bad service on this flight on hellopeter too), I was taken for a fool. It was at night and all me and my well-behaved brother wanted was a coca-cola. The tall crew member in question looked at us like we were mars. He probably looked at us as kids and didn’t think that we deserved respect…He said in a rude and grumpy manner : ‘I don’t understand what you are saying!’ . So we said: ‘Can we please have some cokes?’ He then responded in a loud: ‘what is that?! I don’t understand you!’ literally looking at us like we were accusing him of a war-crime. The look he gave me and brother is what got me the most. I will NEVER (and i mean this) EVER fly SAA again if someone there gives me that type of look again. At that point i was ready to strangle him. Why is it when they speak on the intro-intercom, they reassure you that they will cater to your every demand, and yet when you ask for the simplest thing, they treat you like absolute crap? Why even listen to the intro-intercom? After SAA 235 I had no intention of listening to the intro-intercom on flight SAA 323. Then i was shat on for having earphones on while they played the intro-video…

Later I came back from the bathroom when my brother said the same guy came back later and prodded a water bottle in his side quite sharply and roughly and without so much as a ‘here you go sir’. After R10 000 for the ticket, where is the respect for the customer?

Later at the domestic departures metal detector stop in johburg, there were drugs lying on the floor in front of everyone and no-one did anything. Another man there then rudely told me to get my stuff off the rail and that “i must get off” as this airport belongs to him! His words! He also gave me a look that made me want to jump the rail and slit his throat!

This all happened in a matter of hours. Screw SAA! Never flying it again. If I were an unreasonable person I could probably say that the tall Indian man on flight SAA 235 behaved in a racist manner towards me and my brother, especially the man at the domestic departures point…But I won’t go that far, this is a matter of rudeness and bad service that is prevalent in every sector of SAA.

And with a simply google search, I have realized that this isn’t an isolated matter. When I saw there was another complaint of rude behaviour on SAA 235, it was the last straw.

Lets do something to bring that flight back down to ground. I wont stand for this rude and arrogant behaviour. My complaint is not as big as others are (some people have real problems with SAA regarding their bookings and luggage), but it is a complaint none the less.

Chris

I am SO sick of SAA.

I flew to Malaysia, Business class, last week. The flight no is an SAA one (and you can purchase the ticket on their website) code shared with Air Malaysia.

On returning I checked to see if the flight was credited to my voyager account. It wasn’t.

I tried to log the missing miles on line but Kuala Lumpur isn’t an option. Then I called the call centre, they told me that as the flight was operated by Air Malaysia, I wasn’t going to get Voyager miles for it. I was quite cross as you can imagine, because it is a lot of voyager miles and affects my gold status.

I triple queried it with the call centre agent – who kept re-iterating that as the aircraft was Air Malaysia, I wouldn’t get miles. I then asked to speak to a supervisor and was put on hold for 12 minutes. The agent then came back and said that I would get miles. I duly faxed the ticket and boarding passes through and the miles were credited within 24 hours.

The operational side of the team was very efficient – i.e. crediting within 24 hours. However, why doesn’t the call centre agent know the rules. If I hadn’t been insistent I would have missed out on a lot of miles.

Samantha Louis

I really feel reluctant to ever use SAA again, and this is why:

I was booked on a flight to London scheduled to depart on the 21st June, ref ZNKAKV.

Due to personal reasons I was forced to cancel my flight on the 9th June. I tried to do it online but found that I had to do it through the SAA call centre. I called, and after being on hold for a considerable amount of time, spoke to a representative. We went through the process of cancelling my ticket and requesting a refund. I was assured that the money would be refunded in 21 days. (BUT not all of it – SAA actually keeps my money – the only thing you get refunded is the tax, so basically SAA couldn’t care less)

A. THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED

B. WHY ON EARTH DOES IT TAKE 21 DAY TO REFUND MY MONEY? – I BELIEVE THIS IS A COMPLETE SCAM. It would be reasonable to expect my money refunded WITH INTEREST as SAA surely earn 21 days worth of interest on my money (I know it is tax but I doubt that it has already been paid over to SARS, and why can SAA not simply return my money and get it back from SARS themselves?).

Today I receive an email from the friend who had booked the flights for us saying that he has to date received no refund of my money. So I again have to go through the process of calling the SAA call centre – a waste of my time and money. I speak to a representative called Tsepho who tells me that in fact THE REFUND WAS NEVER PROCESSED AS ORIGINALLY REQUESTED. Lovely.

Now the SAA call centre DOES NOT generate a reference number (or call log number) for their calls so I have no way of referring back to the original call I made to cancel my ticket. I again asked for a reference number from Tsepho and she said they don’t keep them. What kind of call centre has no call log??? How do you guys track customer requests?

So now I am told I must wait a FURTHER 21 days!????? Through no fault of mine – actually directly through the fault of SAA and their poorly trained or negligent call centre staff – I have to wait again for this ridiculous time period.

I must say that the call centre agent I spoke to seemed completely disinterested in helping me out at all and generally seemed annoyed and impatient. I guess that working for SAA must be frustrating.

Anyway, please SAA can you sort this out and return my money within a reasonable time period – like a few days? I have already been waiting *42 DAYS*…..and I am really begining to get annoyed. Really this is not that difficult. It is not even that much money – I am owed a grand total of R3 184.00 which I am sure could be paid out of the office petty cash. Please make a plan as I am really bored of being taken advantage of. I think what I am asking is really reasonable…

I look forward to a response. Please do not hesitate to contact me should you require any more information to resolve this issue speedily.

Thanks,

Hannah

I will wish if someone at South African Airways will assist in the effective resolution to this problem. Initially I thought this problem of mine was going to be resolved very easily, but I have come to a realization that I have to either use this medium or if possibly involve my lawyers before someone will listen to me.

*Why am I complaining?*

I booked a flight (Online) from Tanzania to South Africa for a business partner on the 08th of July 2009 at 08:30pm. I made payment online using my credit card and the payment was successful. I received a call the next morning (09th July 2009) at 05:00am from a gentleman who advised that he was calling from South African Airways (Tanzania Branch).

The gentleman requested I fax the following documents in order to enable my business partner board the flight for verification purposes:

1. A copy of my I.D / Passport 2. Copy of my Credit Card (Both Sides)

I advised this gentleman that I did not have the facilities to send these documents to him and suggested that he allow my business partner to board the flight but should be held by airport security when he gets to OR Tambo till I confirm the details. I was at OR Tambo at 08:00am (09th July 2009) just to verify if my partner was allowed to board the flight and produce all the verification documents which was needed. To my surprise, he was not allowed to board the flight and when I contacted South African Airways, I was advised that the ticket I booked and paid online has been cancelled because it was suspected to be a fraudulent credit card transaction.

*What situation caused me to complain and the people who played a role in this situation?*

If my business partner was not allowed to board the flight, then I believe my money should be refunded. I took the initiative to contact the South African Airways contact centre on several occasions and these were the people I spoke to:

1. My bankers (FNB) contacted SAA and was referred to lady by the name Margaret (who is supposed to be at the refund dpt.) Margaret initially sounded very helpful but later did not contact me again although she promised to contact the bank and myself to arrange for the refund. 2. I later called SAA contact centre and spoke to a lady by the name Sasha (I strongly believe she is not in Africa but in the USA). Sasha gave me the worse service I have ever received from any contact centre. Her call logging information’s did not reflect what exactly transpired between us when I was speaking to her. She was very biased in her call logging (Ref: RP/DARSA08AA). I will suggest a supervisor of SAA retrieve that call and analyze its contents again. 3. The third agent I spoke to was called Palesa, who also could not give me a very proactive solution to the problem but later escalated to her team leader by the Kitiwe. Kitiwe was so helpful and promised to make sure the issue is resolved by the fraud department and will contact me personally to provide a feedback “WHICH SHE NEVER DID TILL TODAY”

*What I reasonably expect as an outcome?*

1. Can SAA explain as to why I have not received my money till today? 2. My bankers have tried their possible best to speak to SAA in order to confirm the refund but to no avail. 3. When my Bankers called SAA today (20th July), we were advised that SAA (SA Branch) does not actually know where the money is but might be with SAA (Tanzania Branch)-(this information came from SAA, South Africa refund department). Is SAA (SA Branch) and SAA (Tanzania Branch) different companies? 4. My next action will be to seek the advice of my lawyers and also involve the media in this issue because I am being treated unfairly.

I am kindly requesting a supervisor or someone in authority to contact me as soon as possible so that I can get a permanent solution to this problem.

Expecting an immediate response.

Regards

Dr. Ernest Owusu-Baah (CEO)

Samern Management Development